Convert the GPS waypoints to Shapefile

In this document, I will convert the GPS way-points (with photo-link, name, latitude, longitude) into shapefile using arcpy and python modules. Find the example gpx file from this link. Use the following example code and modify according to your need. The photos are in the same folder as the gpx file.

import arcpy
import os
from lxml import etree

ws = '/home/ubuntu/gpx'
arcpy.env.workspace = ws
arcpy.env.overwriteOutput = True

def parse(source):
    try:
        parser = etree.XMLParser(
            huge_tree = True,
            no_network = False,
            remove_blank_text = True,
        )
        result = etree.parse(source, parser)
        return result
    except Exception as e:
        print('XML Parse error: {}'.format(e))
        return None

def stringify_children(node):
    from lxml.etree import tostring
    from itertools import chain
    parts = ([node.text] + list(chain(*([c.text, tostring(c), c.tail] for c in node.getchildren()))) + [node.tail])
    return ''.join(filter(None, parts))

table_name = 'table'

files = os.listdir(ws)
gpx_file = [os.path.join(ws, _file) for _file in files if _file.endswith('.gpx')][0]
gpx_tree = parse(gpx_file).getroot()

gdb = arcpy.CreateFileGDB_management(ws, '{}'.format(table_name))

# way points
result = arcpy.CreateFeatureclass_management (gdb, arcpy.ValidateTableName('{}_wp.shp'.format(table_name)), geometry_type='POINT', spatial_reference=arcpy.SpatialReference(4326))
arcpy.AddField_management(result, 'name', 'TEXT')
arcpy.AddField_management(result, 'link', 'TEXT')
cursor = arcpy.da.InsertCursor(result, ['name', 'link', 'SHAPE@XY'])

way_points = gpx_tree.xpath('//ns:wpt', namespaces = {'ns':'http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1'})

for way_point in way_points:
    lat = float(way_point.attrib['lat'])
    lon = float(way_point.attrib['lon'])
    wp_shp = arcpy.Point()
    wp_shp.Y = lat
    wp_shp.X = lon
    point_geometry = arcpy.PointGeometry(wp_shp, arcpy.SpatialReference(4326))

    name = way_point.xpath('./ns:name', namespaces = {'ns': 'http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1'})[0]
    name = stringify_children(name)
    link = None
    if 'Photo' in name:
        link = way_point.xpath('./ns:link', namespaces = {'ns': 'http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1'})[0]
        link = os.path.join(os.path.normpath(ws), _dir, link.attrib['href'])
        link = link.replace(os.sep, '/')

    cursor.insertRow([name, link, point_geometry])